Yes, I think so, Walter; at any rate, I was screwing one on and off quite a bit during the walk, but unworked upon it (this shot) has the look of a polarized frame: had to mask off the boat and raise the blue to take it away from a darkish grey.

I don't think polas work as nicely with digital - tend to deaden things a bit but seem to help the whites.

Walked down the marina after lunch to see a beautiful black power cruiser - in the 70' - 80' range - called 4 Girls. It's been here before and I didn't snap it, thinking it some guy's token homage to his daughters. Today, I learned that no, it is just four chicks that own it. They were all sitting having lunch on the afterdeck, clearly as happy as Larry (who is that blasted Larry, anyway?) and I didn't even have the heart to snap a snap. Maybe tomorrow, if they are still around and it's not cloudy and dull like today, and haven't sailed off into my sunset, I'll get something with a camera.

But why did it make me blue? Is it easier to accept a guy being incredibly richer but not a woman? Is there some hidden or even obvious sense of inadequacy behind such emotions, triggered by superior female financial clout? God alone knows, but it isn't pleasant either way. Must be the result of generation upon generation of rôle expectation. I wonder if zebras feel similar things? Lions obviously gave up on that centuries ago and enjoy the rewards of lying back and letting the 'esses get on with finding lunch.

I'll go now and apply some more varnish in the kitchen; that'll make things even.

Rob, reaserch shows that relationships suffer when female partner earns more, so it is not just you, cheer up!

That's odd: richer (easy to be!) female partner would suit me just fine; it's the strangers that faze me. Perhaps it's the mystery, the idea that they know and practise something that I neither know nor can. Not that I'm suggesting they got there horizontally rather than vertically - might even have come from a winning ticket - but you know what I mean.

In an attempt to try and discover something about the setup, I went onto Google, and all I could come up with connected with 4 Girls was a multitude of almost identical snaps of pretty women sticking their bikinied rumps at the camera. How boring a few pages of that becomes. I gave up the search for enlightenment.

Ray knows about enlightenment, zen, karaoke and all that cool oriental jive; perhaps he might be able to supply some answers.